Tuesday 7 December 2010

Daniel's first bike

My apologies for not keeping up with the blog this fall. We have been even busier than usual around here. Here are a few pictures of Daniel and his first bike which we got him this fall for his 2nd birthday. You might notice that it has no wheels- it is a balance bike which is meant to be sat on and propelled by pushing with the feet.



At first he was most interested in the bell. Daniel would not get on the bike the first time he encountered it.



A week or so later, we came home from somewhere and Daniel wanted to try riding his bike. He sat on it for a minute or less and then decided he wanted off. Perhaps in the spring... ;)




Monday 6 December 2010

St. Nicolas Day

Merry St. Nicholas Day! The Dutch begin to celebrate Christmas with "Sinterclaus" festivities on Dec. 5th (which is the eve of St. Nicholas Day) so we've decide to adopt the tradition and make it our own. Last year we had small stockings for each other and one large gift for Daniel. We've decided that if he is going to get a big gift from us it will be on Dec. 5th so that he can have a few weeks to play with it before we head north for Christmas (and we don't have top pack it back and forth). This year Keith may have gone a little overboard. We decided that Daniel's love of playing with trains justified buying a train table and Keith was put in charge of finding one. He put it all together the day before in the basement and then moved it upstairs and set up the tracks, etc while Daniel was in bed. When Daniel woke up on Dec. 5th he was amazed to see a train table in the living room. I don't think he stopped playing with it all day except to eat and nap.


The previous "system":


Keith putting everything together after coming home form a symphony concert:



One happy boy:




Monday 11 October 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have Keith's parents visiting this Thanksgiving weekend & Daniel is very thankful for that indeed. He opened his birthday present from them on Thursday, and has been getting Grandpa & Grandma to play trains with him ever since.




Grandpa + Train set = Lots of fun!







Daniel has also been enjoying stealing Grandma's fuzzy slippers. Usually he sticks to one pair of shoes at a time, but he was quite impressed with himself for managing to get his slippered feet into Grandpa's shoes. He's also gotten into saying cheese when I point a camera in his direction.




Corn Maze Fun



Daniel & I met up with friends at the Corn Maze just over a week ago. The weather here has been fantastic lately and we thought we should have as much outdoor fun as we can before the snow flies.









The corn looks especially tall compared to a two year old. We stuck to the kid maze which was basically a path cut through the corn with no way to get lost.


Wednesday 29 September 2010

Petting Zoo Fun

Here are a couple videos from the Pumpkin Festival Petting Zoo:



Pumpkin Festival

So excited!


"Two sheeps, Mom!"


Pygmy Goats


"Big moo cow"


Seconds before a big jump off the hay bale:



We discovered the Pumpkin Festival for the first time this year. What a great event! We go there just after 11am so we started by having lunch and listening to the live music. Daniel was eager to check out the games, but alas, he was too young for the the bouncy castle that he really wanted to go on. Thankfully, the Petting Zoo had no line up, so the tears were quickly dried and we went in to pet & feed the animals. As you can probably guess from the photos, Daniel LOVED it!

What's new at Two


Our little boy turned two last week so in honour of the milestone, I thought I should give a little update. Daniel is just over 3 feet tall, and weighs just under 30 pounds. He can run, jump, climb, high five, give "knuckles", and enjoys doing an assisted somersault. He does have hair, but is rendered completely invisible by camera so you may choose not believe me.

His language has grown by leaps and bounds. I think last spring we actually counted how many words he knew, and now he's putting together sentences and telling us about everything he sees. Earlier this week I took him for a walk and we saw a big truck that was shooting gravel into a foundation. He's still talking about the "big truck rocks" on a regular basis so I guess it really impressed him. He is starting to tell us when he has gone to the bathroom ("Mom, big poop. Yucky gross") and pronounces himself "big all clean" just after a diaper change or bath. Yes, "big" is his favourite adjective so far, though "yucky gross" is also very popular.

Daniel loves to read books with Mom & Dad. Lately his favourites are "Hippos Go Berserk", "OhMYOhMyOh Dinosaurs", "Winnie the Pooh Tells Time", and the set of books Grandma S. gave him which feature different big machines. He is very impressed with clocks and can spot them further off than you can imagine. Same thing for buses, diggers, and trucks. Daniel loves seeing animals and can make most of the noises that go along with them. We often go for walks around the park near our house and he points out the birds and dogs especially. When we get to the playground he usually wants to swing first, then go around jumping off whatever can be jumped off of.

The cats are still doing great with him, though they aren't sure about being picked up which he has begun attempting lately. I think they might be too heavy for him yet. Maybe next year...;)

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Daniel is 2!

We're not sure how Daniel has gotten to be two already. I guess time must be flying because we're having fun.









Monday 6 September 2010

Summer photo backlog



Playing around the "Big Rock" in Banff, right before my camera battery died and I couldn't take anymore.



Grandma S. got Daniel some stylin' rubber boots.



This stool is much more fun as a desk.



Our goofball:

Tuesday 31 August 2010

Back when it was summer...





Once upon a time, it was nice enough to sit outside in a kiddy pool and run around at the spray park. It all seems so far away now that the air feels like autumn before September has even begun. Hopefully an Indian Summer is in our near future.

Tuesday 24 August 2010

The fuzz


So that you can more fully apreciate the need for a haircut, check out the fuzz at the top of his head.

Finally, a haircut!

Daniel finally had his first haircut. Yes, his 2nd birthday is less than a month away, but it just couldn't wait any longer. The "old-man-comb-over-hair"/"who-ville swirl" he had going on was getting to be an out of control fuzzball. I am a little sad to see the culrs go, but it looks like he's got more coming.

Before, not really showing the fuzz at it's full fuzziness:



During:


He wasn't sure what he thought about this whole haircut idea. He alternated between, "Hey, this is a cool mirror" and "What are you doing to my head? Stop!"



Let me tell you something, sonny.



After, not that he looks any different- in pictures his hair seems to be rendered invisible:



Hard to see any difference in this one with the light so you'll just have to trust us that he looks way more grown up. Really, he does. We're sure to take another picture before long, with a zoom lense perhaps.

Friday 16 July 2010

The sun is shining!


It's finally feeling like summer most of the time, so we're outside. We'll try to remember to blog every once & awhile too!

Monday 28 June 2010

The weekend flew by





This past weekend we made an extremely quick trip out west to attend Keith's colligeum group reunion. It was Daniel's first time in an airplane and Keith's first time driving a hybrid and they both adapted quite well. When we called ahead to arrange meeting up with Keith's old landlords, Harry & Bertha, they invited us to stay the weekend in Keith's old home away from home on the farmyard. Daniel was delighted with some fresh air and open spaces after all the travelling, though he was disappointed none of the farm kitties ("meows") wanted to play with him.

Only 48 hours after leaving Alberta, we were back again. Before driving home from Calgary we stopped in to wish a happy baptism day to Caitlin and tried to recreate a picture of her Dad & I from a 32 year old photo album.





You'll just have to believe me that the pose is similar, I forgot to take a picutre of the original. :)